‘Russia is a threat’: Estonia frets about its neighbor - WP
24 Mar 2017 EWR Online
Kaljulaid at a meeting in Finland this month. (Jussi Nukari/AFP/Getty Images)
By Lally Weymouth, senior associate editor at The Washington Post.
TALLINN, ESTONIA Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid is treading carefully. Sitting in her office this past week, she said she believes Vice President Pence’s assurances that, despite President Trump’s skepticism, the United States is committed to NATO. A NATO battalion just arrived to make this small and vulnerable Baltic nation feel safer from Russia, a powerful neighbor historically ambivalent about its independence. Kaljulaid, chosen last year as a compromise candidate, spoke to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth about Vladimir Putin, NATO and a childhood spent under Soviet occupation. Edited excerpts follow.
Q. Is Russia a threat? Are you worried? A. Yes, I am worried. Russia is a threat. Not a physical threat to any NATO country but [a threat] to the international security architecture. In 2008, they moved on Georgia.
Q. When Russia occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia? A. That was the first sign. It blew over very quickly — European countries went back to business and life continued. This, of course, taught President Putin a lesson: He could push a little more.
